Texas bricklayers save driver trapped in burning car

SUGAR LAND, Texas -- Lucky thing a bunch of bricklayers showed up for work in Texas on New Year's Eve, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reports.

They were building a wall in the Sugar Land subdivision of Greatwood, near Houston, when they heard a loud bang, the sound of a car crashing into a tree.

"Well, we were working, and we heard a crash," said Willie Cleveland, one of the bricklayers. "And so one of the workers said, 'A car is on fire down there.' You know, we could see the flames already started. So we rushed down there and tried to open the doors, and we couldn't open them."

Inside the burning car, a driver was struggling to escape. The workers used bricks and whatever else they could find to try to smash the windows, but nothing worked. Smoke and flames enveloped the car.

"You know, we were really scared because the fire is starting to go to the car," said Jose Melendez, another of the bricklayers who ran to the scene. "And we're scared because, you know, maybe it'll explode."

When it was clear none of the bricks would break the window, one of the workers came up with a plan.

"Somebody said, 'Go get the hammer,'" Cleveland said. "We ran down and got the sledgehammer, broke the window. We knew somebody had to be inside."

Airbags had deployed in the car, blocking the bricklayers' view of the driver.

"Then we had to look for a knife. We didn't have a knife on us," Cleveland said. "A jogger had a knife. We cut the airbags, and the man was trying to come out backwards, so I told him to turn around because we couldn't get him by his feet, and he turned around, and we pulled him out."

Witnesses said the driver was conscious when firefighters arrived to extinguish the flames. An ambulance carried him away to a nearby hospital. His condition was not immediately released.

"It happened so fast, man," Cleveland said. "I'm glad that we was able to help him."

Hours after the incident, neighbors were still gathering at the scene to trade stories about what happened. La Vaughn Miller, who watched firefighters pull the man out of the wrecked car, showed off photographs he took from the balcony of his home.

Meanwhile, the bricklayers just went back to work.

"They're definitely the heroes today," said Dash Miller, another witness. "Otherwise, the way that car was on fire, he would've been gone."